Blast in Kohlu injures 8 people

The bomb was hidden in a plastic shopping bag and planted near a public telephone booth in Kohlu.

A homemade bomb ripped through a town bazaar in restive southwestern Pakistan on , seriously injuring two boys and six other people, an official said.

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The bomb was hidden in a plastic shopping bag and planted near a public telephone booth in Kohlu, a town about 300 kilometres east of the Balochistan provincial capital of Quetta, local government official Nasim Lehri said.

No one claimed responsibility immediately for the explosion but Lehri blamed local tribesmen, who have been accused of rocket attacks on security forces and bombings targetting railroads and gas pipelines.

The bomb went off in front of the telephone booth, shattering windows there and at a nearby bank in the main street in Kohlu, Lehri said.

The two boys, 9 and 11, were being treated for serious injuries, he said.